1. RESTEC supports "JAXA SAR Data Training" in Asia

RESTEC, jointly with PASCO Corporation, was awarded a contract to support “JAXA SAR Data Training” by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This 3 days training course will be held in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Vietnam respectively. The course will focus on the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) so that many users can obtain useful information from ALOS-2 satellite which was launched in last May. More information will follow through RESTEC e-news.

2. RESTEC to Hold a Basic RS Training through JST's "SAKURA" Program

RESTEC was awarded a contract of “SAKURA Exchange Program in Science” by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). RESTEC will invite 10 young researchers and students from Asian countries and provide them with basic remote sensing knowledge through this program in October 2014.

3. Training Workshop in Africa was postponed

Japanese Government has decided to postpone “MEXT-JAXA 1st Satellite Data Training Workshop in Africa” which was to be held in Kinshasa – the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – from 29 Sep. to 1 Oct. 2014, with about 30 trainees from Southern African Development Community (SADC). New date of the workshop is under consideration.

RESTEC has been supporting the arrangement and will send 2 lecturers to the workshop.

4. Message from the three trainees of RESTEC training

I congratulate RESTEC for such news and I wish all success, I appreciate what it do, I was an ex. trainee in 2005, in Remote Sensing, so I do like and appreciate all the staff.
with all my best wishes
Yousef Hammouda

Dear RESTEC administrator
First of all I thank you for the development of Alos Satellite. In 2010 I participated in the Working Group 2, which discusses small islands and mangroves. Many of the benefits I get from working group 2, I get the image of Weh Island, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. Then in 2013 I was able to follow the SAR training.
I hope the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (I work here) can participate in collaboration with the programs organized by RESTEC.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards
Dini Purbani

I really appreciate Prof Dr Murai’ contribution to e-news and his article should inspire young people to have a dream for the future. If you have a dream and work for it, the success is sure to come. When this happen, not only you, but other people and indeed the world will benefit from your endeavor. Many new possibilities are waiting for the young generation to explore. We should also pay respect to the forerunners like Prof Dr Murai who inspired us.
With my best wishes to all.
Dr Suvit Vibulsresth

5. Message from Coordinator

Column 3. International Courses in the Morning （1990）
The training of RESTEC started at 10:00 a.m. and ended at 4:00 p.m., but I noticed that the early birds showed up before 9:30 a.m. The voluntary training, in which each participant took turns to give a short lecture on their native languages began early in the morning.
The participant from Korea gave a crash course on Korean daily conversation by showing Hangeul on the white board carefully with some explanatory talks in Japanese. The one from Bangladesh who was very organized looked proud of his neat handwriting in Sanskrit with complex characters on the white board. The students were fascinated with the calligraphy.
A group of trainees, the fast talkers from Mexico, the only one woman, Chile and Peru gave a lecture on Spanish conversation with gestures.
Even the self-effacing trainee from China hesitantly helped his colleagues in learning basic phrases in his mother tongue.
These cultural exchanges in the morning, I thought, made the trainees feel relaxed and refreshed.

We would very much like to hear from you even if you are not currently using any satellite data. Please feel free to send us (to: e-news@restec.or.jp) few lines on your current activities along with your name, current place of work (organization) and the month and the year of the RESTEC training you joined. Your cooperation will be very much appreciated.